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Four Little Birds, TAC 2015

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4709 days ago

5310 posts - 9399 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans
Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish

 
 Message 41 of 54
25 April 2015 at 3:03am | IP Logged 
Hope you get better soon, Teango!

Выздоравливай!
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meramarina
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1341 posts - 2303 votes 
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 Message 42 of 54
25 April 2015 at 3:26am | IP Logged 
Oh no, I am sorry to hear that you have been ill lately ! You seem to be making admirable progress with your
many languages. I can't quite say the same for myself; the last two years have been very slow and stupid for
me, in part due to illness, so I do empathize with the frustration that comes from that. I am feeling OK now
though, and going to Berlin next weekend for the Gathering! This is sure to knock me out mentally and
physically, but it's really exciting, too. Wish you could be there!
1 person has voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5558 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 43 of 54
26 April 2015 at 3:28am | IP Logged 
@tarvos
Спасибо, дружище...надеюсь скоро буду на ногах.

@meramarina
Thanks for your kind words - us fellow "language frustratees" need to stick together. I'm happy to hear you're keeping the aches and pains at bay, and are jetting off to Berlin next weekend. Good on you...I'd love to go myself, but look forward to hearing how it went on your return as a consolation. Now the big question is...what to pack? ;)

Edited by Teango on 26 April 2015 at 3:29am

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meramarina
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5969 days ago

1341 posts - 2303 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: German, Italian, French
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 44 of 54
26 April 2015 at 7:54pm | IP Logged 
Aches and pains are with me, for sure, but I'm doing it anyway ! I'll need to pack lightly so I have room for
new language books and treasures--there will be a language BOOK SALE !!!!!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5558 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 45 of 54
27 April 2015 at 5:03am | IP Logged 
What you need is a virtually weightless yet tardis-deep travelling case, ever ready to cram full of language loot and plunder at a moment's notice. Happy hunting, meramarina!
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Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5558 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 46 of 54
06 May 2015 at 1:20am | IP Logged 
Hawaiian: My response to “Haoles shouldn’t learn Hawaiian”

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi

Ua noho au i Honolulu nei i ʻekolu makahiki paha, a ke aʻo mainei i ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ma ke kulanui o Hawaiʻi ma Mānoa. Makemake loa au e aʻo mai i ka ʻōlelo, a hana au i kēia mea i kau mahalo nui no ka poʻe Hawaiʻi a me ko lākou ʻike, mau hana, a me nā moʻolelo.

Komo au i nā hanana i kahi noho like o ka poʻe, i ka wā hiki nō, a hōʻike au i koʻu mahalo i ka moʻolelo a me nā kumu o ka ʻōlelo, e kūlia ana e hoʻomaopopo nui loa i ke kuanaʻike Hawaiʻi o ka honua, e kaʻapuni ana nō hoʻi i loko o kehahi hui ola o ka poʻe e ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi nei.

Hoʻomaikaʻi nō au i ka hoʻāpono ʻia e kekahi mau kānaka Hawaiʻi i kekahi ʻohana nui, he ʻohana e hana nei e mālama i kona 'ōlelo uʻi, a nō hoʻi, e kōkua iā ia e hoʻoikaika a e maʻa aku me nā wā loli, a i ka wā hoʻokahi, e kīpū pono i kona mau kumu a me nā manaʻo haku o kona mau kūpuna.

No ka mea hapa ʻAiliki au, hiki nō iaʻu ke hoʻomaopopo i nā mea ʻano like nui i waena o ka paio e mālama i ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi a me ka noho ʻana, a me ka i hoʻoluʻuluʻu ʻia nō hoʻi o ka ʻōlelo ʻAiliki i ka wā i hala. A no laila, makemake loa au e ʻike i kēlā mau ʻōlelo, ʻaʻole wale nō e ola pipī i ka malu o kekahi ʻōlelo ʻē aʻe, akā e ulu aʻe, ulu pono, a makalapua i ka pā ʻana a ka lā i nā kenekulia i kēia mua aku.

Loli nō nā ʻōlelo i kēlā manawa i kēia manawa, e like me ka poʻe a me nā hiʻohiʻona ʻāina i mālama iā ʻlākou; a pēlā, ke loli a ulu aʻe nei nā mokupuni pele, he ʻāina e ola ana. Akā, no wai ka pono o nā kuleana o kekahi ʻōlelo? ʻO ka poʻe wale nō me kekahi pakeneka koko Hawaiʻi piha, ā kekahi kala ʻili paha?

Hiki nō, e hoʻihoʻi ana i ka hoʻokae no ka hoʻokae, a e hoʻomau i ka makaʻu paha, he mea ʻino e alakaʻi wale nō ana i nā muku make. Noho anei ka wā mahope o kekahi ʻōlelo ma luna o nā poʻohiwi o ka manaʻo aloha i alakaʻi i ka mahele ʻana a i nā hui mālama i waena o nā kānaka mālama haole a me nā ʻōiwi i kōkua nui e hoʻoulu i ka maopopo o ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ma hope mai nā o makahiki 1970 mai?

I kēia manawa, hiki iā ʻkākou ke ʻike nā hana pono o kēia mau paionia e hoʻohua ana i nā kula kaiapuni Hawaiʻi, i ke kino e ulu ana o ka palala a me ka pāpaho, a i nā hana o ka poʻe i nā mokupuni o Hawaiʻi a pau e haʻapeha nei i ka ʻike o ka ʻōlelo a me nā loina Hawaiʻi, a i koʻu manaʻo, he mea kamahaʻo kēia.

English

I've lived in Honolulu for almost 3 years, and am currently studying Hawaiian at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I love learning the language, and do this out of the deepest respect for Hawaiian people and their culture and tradition.

I get involved as much in the local community as I can, and pay my respects to the history and cultural roots of the language, seeking to better understand the Hawaiian perspective of the world, both around and within, a living community of Hawaiian speakers.

I feel blessed to be accepted by other Hawaiians into one big family, a family that strives to preserve its beautiful language, as well as keep it vibrant, relevant, and adaptive to the changing times, whilst at the same time stay true to its roots and the core values and beliefs of its ancestors.

Being half Irish, I can recognize so many similarities between the struggle for preserving the Hawaiian language and way of life, and the way that Irish was also heavily oppressed in the past, and this is why I especially want to see both Irish and Hawaiian, not merely survive in the shadow of another language, but grow, thrive, and blossom independently in the sunshine for centuries to come.

Languages do indeed change over time, just as communities and the very landscapes that nurture them change over time; after all, even the volcanic islands of Hawaiʻi are still changing and growing, a living land. However, who should be the privileged shareholders of a language? Just people with a certain percentage of "pure blood" or a certain shade of skin color?

Surely returning hatred for hatred, or at least perpetuating fear, is an ugly and unprogressive thing that leads to nothing but dead ends. Doesn't the future of a language rest on the shoulders of the very Hawaiian concept of aloha that led to the type of sharing and nurturing partnerships between non-native preservationists and native speakers which brought about so much growth and understanding since the 1970s?

We can now see the positive endeavours of these pioneers bearing fruit today in Hawaiian immersion schools, in a growing body of literature and new media, and in community projects and events all around Hawai'i that spread knowledge of Hawaiian language and culture, and I think this is a wonderful thing.



Edited by Teango on 06 May 2015 at 1:21am

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Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5558 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 47 of 54
08 May 2015 at 2:52am | IP Logged 
Weeks 17-18

As with every end of term, chaos surely ensues, and the skyline quickly fills with snowcapped piles of paperwork that need surmounting in record time. Despite this perilous time of year, I still managed to get my grappling hooks into plenty of Hawaiian (which is made that much easier for taking a class at university). I can't say the same thing for my other sad and neglected languages, but once this next fortnight is over, I hope to find time to get into a more regular schedule and do all the other languages listed below some justice.

Russian (0.9h)

I bought the Penguin "Russian course" as a supplement text for grammar, and also, just out of sheer curiosity, pre-ordered a pronunciation trainer video and wordlist for Russian from the Fluent Forever website. I'd like to start reading and listening to some "Taste of Russian" podcasts over summer, as they look like an excellent resource, and I learned that a "шапка" extends to many more types of head covering than I had previously thought!

French (0.1h)

My wife bought a whole bunch of French easy readers recently, including a parallel text of "Le Petit Prince" with audio. So I look forward to pinching these at some point to kick off my French reading this summer. Iʻm sure she won't mind...

German (0.3h)

My German is still languishing in some dark, dank corner of what I call my brain, but I did at least watch a short video or two online to keep it from falling into a full coma.

Hawaiian (30h)

Hawaiian has been the main protagonist in my studies this past fortnight, for which I've been working whirling dervishly hard. I drank kava from Tonga and Fiji for the first time (a ceremonial Polynesian drink made from the crushed ʻawa root) which made my tongue go numb, wrote my first big essay in Hawaiian (see post above), and spent untold hours producing a video in Hawaiian for my end of term group project.

I also signed up for Hawaiian 201 over summer, and 202 in the Fall, and now that classes are pau (i.e., finished), I've also signed up for the 6 Week Challenge to keep me focused on Hawaiian till the end of the month (when my 5 week summer course begins). So far I'm leading the 6WC board (which is a first!), but I'm sure others are hot on my trail...

Most importantly, I think I've made my first big breakthrough in Hawaiian, as I can now talk continuously in Hawaiian, albeit very slowly, for 20 minutes, and I can do this without too much searching for vocabulary or grammar. This means I can write, translate, and understand a lot of the core grammatical principles, and my last reading score for "Ke Keiki Ali'i Li'ili'i" (The Little Prince) has risen from 84% to 92% in the last 3 months. So I'm getting there...

The main issue I have right right now is listening comprehension, which still hasn't caught up with the rest of my blossoming skills. I know this is a common obstacle for most learners, so I hope to work on it this month, once my looming mountains of project work and grading are behind me.

Irish (1h)

Wow, I think every one of my Irish skill sets in Duolingo hates me now! I've left them for so long that they just emaciated down to bare slivers of gold. I've started feeding them again, but I find the process so boring...maybe if I were fed treats myself for getting translations right, like a little marmoset in a behaviorist experiment, I would feel a tad more motivated. All the same, I guess it's a handy activity to squeeze into 5 or 10 free minutes whilst waiting for a student in my office or lining up in the canteen for something utterly unhealthy (simply because it has an exotic foreign name).

Other (Japanese 0.1h; Tagalog 0.2h)

I watched an episode of "The Tim Ferris Experiment" where he had to learn Tagalog in 3 days for a short live tv interview. This got me sorely tempted once again to learn a wee dram of Tagalog (there's a big Filipino community here in Oʻahu). I also spoke to someone in broken Japanese for about 5 minutes; well, every little bit counts! ;)

(Total time spent on learning languages over the last fortnight: 32.5 hours)

Edited by Teango on 08 May 2015 at 5:49am

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tangleweeds
Groupie
United States
Joined 3577 days ago

70 posts - 105 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Irish, French

 
 Message 48 of 54
08 May 2015 at 7:52am | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
My wife bought a whole bunch of French easy readers recently, including a
parallel text of "Le Petit Prince" with audio.

I just discovered the existence of that one, and made room for it in next month's budget. It
looks like a great kick-starter for French, having audio and everything, plus I've never read
the story before. I'd love to hear whether any of your wife's other French easy readers turn
out to look intriguing.

I agree that the idea of needing reveiw Duolingo Irish from the beginning sounds dull indeed.
I gave it a spin yesterday while waiting for an appointment, but I'd gone so long without
reviews that my Duolingo-specific vocabulary had all but dissipated (though my grasp on
grammar had improved). Your post made me imagine re-studying Duolingo with a dish of little
chocolate treats, to administer rewards for each correct answer. Bingo!

Edited by tangleweeds on 08 May 2015 at 7:52am



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